Hydration Myths

“I drink 64 ounces (or 3 quarts, or 2 gallons) of water a day – there is no way that I’m dehydrated!”

We hear statements like this a lot. And, while compared to most people you meet, you may drink way more water than they do, chances are you are still dehydrated. (We’ve tested thousands of people for hydration status and it turns out that only about 1% of people tested are properly hydrated.)

See if you can relate to some of these other hydration myths:

“My urine is clear – I must be hydrated”

False – if your urine is clear, it simply means that you drank more water than your body could absorb and it is flushing it out. It has no bearing on your hydration status. Don’t believe me – go drink 32 ounces of water; I’ll bet that (a) you will be needing to use the bathroom in about 1-1.5 hours and (b) that your urine will be clear (even if you haven’t drank many other liquids).

“I’m not thirsty, so I must not need more water.”

False – Thirst is not a reliable gauge of hydration and/or the need for water. In fact, research has shown that the thirst response will decrease if ignored over time. Furthermore, the thirst response is often mistaken as hunger (here’s a great weight loss tip – Drink. More. Water.) AND the thirst response decreases with age.

Do a little experiment with yourself – drink one-half you body weight in ounces of water daily in divided increments (about 2-4 ounces of water every 20-30 minutes) for 3 weeks. Then try not to do it. You’re body will be screaming at you that you need to drink ore water (because you will have turned back on your thirst response).

“If I drink a lot of water at once, I am getting hydrated.”

False – Your body’s cells can only absorb so much water at once, no matter how much water you drink. While exceeding that capacity isn’t harmful, you will be making more trips to the bathroom and you won’t be any better hydrated.

“I drink plenty of other liquids during the day, including milk, black tea, coffee, soda and alcohol, that all counts as water.”

FALSE – Tea (caffeinated), coffee, alcohol, soda and milk are NOT substitutes for water. In fact, all of the items mentioned above except for milk are actually diuretics, which means that they make you more dehydrated when you drink them.

“Dehydration isn’t that big of deal.”

FALSE – It’s been estimated that if you lose just 2.5% of your body weight from water loss (which is almost everybody), you will lose about 25% of your mental and physical abilities. 25%!!!

That means that if a 100 pound person loses just 2.5 pounds or a 200 pound person loses 5.0 pounds of water (which can easily be done in a 1 hour workout/game and/or a few hours in the yard), you will already be operating at 75% maximum capacity! That is a very big deal!!

Once more, your body will adapt to being chronically dehydrated – we call those adaptations “diseases”.